Obama Makes First Visit to Myanmar

President Says Landmark Trip is Aimed at Supporting Change, not Government

By

Laura Meckler

Updated Nov. 19, 2012 1:36 a.m. ET

YANGON, Myanmar—President Barack Obamaarrived in this once-pariah nation to commend its progress away from military rule and call for more steps to address human-rights abuses, in a visit the White House hopes will help push the nation further down the road of political and economic change.

Barack Obama landed in Myanmar as the first sitting U.S. president ever to visit the Southeast Asia country. The WSJ's Patrick Barta explains Myanmar's political progress and what message the U.S. has for China.

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Mr. Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, which has moved within the last two years to a quasi-civilian government but is the subject of human-rights concerns.

Upon exiting Air Force One, the president paused before a girl who presented him with a bouquet. He spent several minutes talking to her before walking on a red carpet through an honor guard of Myanmar soldiers.

Myanmar's Political History

"I stand before you today as president of the most powerful nation on Earth, with a heritage that would have once denied me the right to vote," said an advance excerpt of the speech released by the White House as the president's plane departed Bangkok, Thailand.

Photos: Obama Visits Southeast Asia

U.S. President Barack Obama takes his first steps on Myanmar soil at Yangon International Airport. EPA

Of Myanmar's changes, he planned to say, "Over the last year and a half, a dramatic transition has begun, as a dictatorship of five decades has loosened its grip," according to the advance text. "Instead of being repressed, the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected. Instead of being stifled, the veil of media censorship must continue to be lifted."

Senior administration officials said Mr. Obama was also expected to call on Myanmar to release remaining political prisoners, follow through on promises to break military ties with North Korea and lead a national reconciliation process to address violence against the country's minority Muslims.

"The United States of America is a nation of Christians and Jews; Muslims and Buddhists; Hindus and non-believers," the president was to say. "Our story is shaped by every language and enriched by every culture. We have tasted the bitterness of civil war and segregation, but our history shows us that hatred in the human heart can recede, and the lines between races and tribe fade away."

The president also planned to announce the return of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to Myanmar and $170 million in assistance over two years to focus on civil society, democratic institutions, education and similar matters, aides said.

Before making the speech, Mr. Obama planned to meet with Mr. Thein Sein, who has overseen Myanmar's recent reforms, and visit the home of freed democracy activist and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was confined under house arrest for 15 years

Myanmar's government rolled out some offerings ahead of Obama's arrival. The government announced that it would sign new nuclear safeguards with International Atomic Energy Agencywatchdog agency against nuclear weapons proliferation. Myanmar's relationship with North Korea and its nuclear program has been a point of concern for the U.S.

The government said that it had granted amnesty to 66 prisoners of conscience.

Activists said that the most high-profile was Myint Aye, founder of a human-rights network who was arrested in 2008 while distributing aid to survivors of a cyclone. He was convicted of a bomb plot and sentenced to eight years in prison. The move follows the release of about 450 prisoners last week, although rights groups say there were no political prisoners among that batch. Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Crosswill be allowed to resume prison visits in the country for the first time since 2005. The government also said it would become a full member of the Open Government Partnership by the end of 2016 to make it more open and accountable by international standards.

Mr. Obama is visiting three Asian countries in less than three days on the ground, sandwiching the tour between congressional negotiations over the budget Friday and the traditional pre-Thanksgiving pardoning of the national turkey Wednesday.

The White House sees the trip as critical to Mr. Obama's effort to pivot U.S. attention away from the Middle East, where two wars have long occupied American attention, and toward Asia, where the president is working to beef up U.S. influence in part as a counterweight to China in the region. The outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas just before he left, however, has interfered with that shift in focus.

The trip to Myanmar is the most significant stop on the trip, and the most fraught. Many human-rights activists argue that the government should have done more to prove itself before being granted a presidential visit.

They cite sectarian violence that is raging against minority Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country, political prisoners who remain jailed and a constitution that still requires 25% of seats in Parliament be filled by members of the military.

"The Burma visit does a lot of things: it makes history, heralds reform, counters China. But one thing it doesn't do is strategically promote human rights," said John Siftonof Human Rights WatchAnd this is why it's so important that the president at least secure some real concessions, like political-prisoner releases. If not even that much can be achieved, the trip will be an utter loss."

In Thailand on Sunday, Mr. Obama sought to explain that his visit should be seen as support for change, but not an endorsement of the government.

"If we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting a long time," Mr. Obama said at a news conference with Thailand's prime minister, Yingluck ShinawatraChange can happen very fast if a spotlight is shown on what's going on in a country and the people there start believing that their voices are heard around the world. And this visit allows me to do that in a fairly dramatic fashion."

U.S. officials have said that engagement over the past year, such as sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country, appointing the first U.S. ambassador in 22 years and loosening economic sanctions, have been met with further reforms, not backsliding, such as when the government released about 450 prisoners last week. They expect continued progress from the Obama trip, which will include a speech to the nation and a visit to the home of democracy activist and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, where she was confined under house arrest for 15 years.

On the streets of Myanmar on Sunday, there appeared to be a mixture of excitement and nonchalance about the coming Obama visit.

On a busy stretch of road in Bahan, a commercial district about a 10-minute drive north of Yangon's downtown, a large canvas banner hung above a shop draped with American flags welcoming Mr. Obama to the country and congratulating him on his recently won four more years.

"Before, when I used to travel, people had no idea which country I came from, but Obama has helped change this," said 29-year-old Zeya Winn. His family business has been printing flags and T-shirts for three decades and has sold about 70 U.S. flags, mostly to government authorities who plan to dot the streets with them when Mr. Obama arrives, as well as to companies and diplomatic missions.

A few hundred meters up the street, a fresh mural paid homage to the U.S. president, one of several that have sprung up in recent days.

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